Vegetarian Thai Food, Interesting Ingredients

There are some Thai vegetarian food ingredients that are quite common, these are often used to flavor or prepare non-vegetarian Thai food dishes too. Most food vendors both small and big, generally have Thai soy sauce in vegetarian form, these are available with a few variations. Tofu made without eggs and consisting mainly of soy based ingredients are also common. Keep in mind that tofu is not always vegetarian, eggs, sea food ingredients and meat are also used to flavor some varieties of tofu. In this report we will discuss a few Thai veg ingredients that are not very common, it is only food outlets and restaurants that have a clear vegetarian Thai menu that use these veg ingredients to cook their Thai food dishes. Just to clarify one important point, some of the Thai food vegetarian ingredients mentioned here do contain garlic as as one of their components, you might want to check the label in detail before purchasing them.

Most restaurants in Thailand have yellow curry and massaman curry on their menus, these are obviously in non-vegetarian form. The curry paste used to make these ingredients are many and surely contain non-vegetarian components. The curry paste that you see above, is vegetarian and can be used to make the delicious yellow curry and massaman curry dishes in vegetarian form. You will find a few restaurants dedicated entirely to Thai veg food, these places not only prepare vegetarian versions of most popular Thai food dishes but often, offer these Thai veg ingredients for sale too.

Notice the small yellow label printed on each of these packets, the first word on the label is Thai and reads 'chey', the second word in in Chinese and also means vegetarian. The appearance and words mentioned on these veg ingredients to cook Thai food, might appear a lot like their non-vegetarian counterparts but, rest assured that they are safe for vegetarians. You will find labels like 'Vegetarian Roasted Meat', 'Vegetarian Shredded Pork' etc. Frozen versions of 'Vegetarian Fish Balls' and 'Vegetarian Meat Balls' are also available. Some of these vegetarian ingredients, contain liberal doses of salt so make sure that you take a quick taste before, adding salt into the Thai veg food dishes that you cook using them.

International news channel CNN has often rated a few Thai food dishes in the 'World's Top Ten Foods' list, Tom Yum is one of them. This Thai food dish is a spicy soup and is generally prepared using fish balls, or meat or prawns. The above veg Thai food ingredients will allow you to make the famous Thai Yum soup in a completely vegetarian form, the dish is generally hot in terms of temperature and chili, so use the vegetarian Tom Yum Paste sparingly. Vegetarian Thai Fried Rice made with vegetables, is one Thai veg food dish that most restaurants (even the non-vegetarian places) are willing to make for you. Use the Thai Fried Rice Cooking Sauce, and easily prepare your own veg Thai fried rice. Besides vegetables, you could also add in a few pieces of vegetarian tofu, the stiffer variety sauteed with a little oil before adding to the rice would add a nice flavor and texture to the vegetarian fried rice.

Mock meat is an interesting vegetarian Thai ingredient, you can see some samples in the above tray. These are vegetarian ingredients to cook Thai food but, look very much like their non-vegetarian counterparts. For a vegetarian looking to get as close to authentic Thai food flavor as possible, mock meat is an excellent choice. Soy, wheat flour, salt and a few herbs and leaves are used to make various types of 'meat'. You will be surprised to know that the taste and flavor of each of these, can vary widely. Thai veg fish balls and veg meat balls are also available to cook veg Thai food. Most of these items need to be stored in the refrigerator both before, and after opening them. Read the production and expiry date before you pick your packs.

These are vegetarian Thai sauces used to flavor Thai food dishes. You would be using them just as you would use tomato ketchup etc. They are not cooking sauces but rather more like dipping sauces. Chilies are common to most of them and notice that, garlic is also an ingredient. Having said that, do check up the sugar content before you start feasting on these sauces. It is not uncommon for a burning hot Thai chili sauce to have as much as 20-30% sugar as an ingredient. It might be a good idea to choose a medium or small bottle for the first try. A better idea would be to buy all sauce flavors in small sizes, once you have tasted them you can settle on one or two and then look for larger bottles.

We do hope that you have enjoyed reading this report as much as, we enjoyed compiling it for you. Thai food is amazing and delicious and a few Thai companies, are working hard to ensure that vegetarians all over the globe do not miss out on the flavor of popular Thai food dishes. Since it is not easy to find restaurants serving a large Thai veg food menu, most vegetarians prefer to cook their own Thai food at home. Share the link of this page with them and let them learn how to add an authentic edge to their Thai food cooking adventures.